It always amazes me when people manage to work with not one or two but many members of the family in office. What do you do when there is a face-off with a sibling or a spouse, or when your opinions differ tangentially?
Nikhil J. Alva, chairman, Alva Brothers (set up in 2008), and executive director, Miditech, a television software production company (see box), works with four family members—three siblings, including elder brother and partner Niret Alva, and wife Pria Somiah Alva. Does he feel like he is between the devil and the deep sea most of his working life? Alva is quick to dispel that notion. Working with family is good, he says, but to make it successful, you need a system in place.
Alva manages ideas development at Miditech (Illustration by: Jayachandran / Mint)
Aha! The rules of engagement. As far as Niret is concerned, Alva says both are “formal with each other at work (no, they don’t refer to each other as Mr Alva as yet but…), respect each other’s space and share all information with each other at all times so that no one can play (them) against each other. Communication has to be consistent.” His younger siblings, Manira and Nivedith, work out of the Bangalore office and Alva says his work relationship with them is professional.
Working with his wife, who is one of Miditech’s oldest employees (Pria joined in 1993), is a different kettle of fish, however. Alva claims she is very headstrong, and unlike Niret— who, six times out of 10, will yield in a face-off—will not back down. “She refuses to treat me like a boss at work and never thinks twice about telling me that my ideas are rubbish in front of 10 people,” he adds with a laugh.
Five years ago, Alva decided to redraw communication lines in order to avoid volatile head-on collisions: “It was a conscious decision that Pria should report to someone else. That way, she maintains her independence and yet we can talk about our work like any regular couple.”
Alva and I met at the Taj Mahal Hotel, New Delhi, for an early evening drink. He arrives 10 minutes after I do, dressed in jeans and black shirt, with an army cadet crew cut. We are the first ones at Rick’s, the capital’s forever fashionable bar. I wonder if Alva is a regular here, but he says he chose this place because it is close to home, which is on Safdarjung Road— home to senior bureaucrats and politicians. He lives with his parents, wife and two children—eight-year-old Rian and five-year-old Laila.